Leather-working machine



March 22 1927' w. F. BLANEY LEATHER WORKING MACHINE Filed Sept. 12, 19232 Sheets-Sheet 1 1,621,577 March 22 1927. F. BLANEY EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENE Patented Mar. 22, 1927,

'mr'eo STATES ,aigsu PATENT orrlcs.

WILLIAM I. BilANEY, OI NEWARK, NEW-JERSEY, ASSIGNOB TO THE TURNER TAN-NIH G MACHINERY COMPANY, 01' PEABODY, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OInm'rmwonxmo meme.

Application filed September 12, 1923. -s m1 No. eeaaia.

This invention relates to machines for treating hides, skins and leatherof that class in which a bed roll is employed to support the work Whilea bladed cylinder or 6 roll operates upon the work supported by the bedroll.

In shaving machines, asheretofore constructed, the cutting cylinder hasordinarily been of such a dimension as to present an 10 effectivecutting surface approximately twelve inches, in length, although morerecently larger cylinders have been employed with an effective cuttingsurface of about two feet in length. In operating with either machine,it is necessary for the operator to shave a portion of' a skin andtoshift the skin repeatedly irt bothlateral and longitudinal directions'tooperate upon ad acent portions, the whole operation of shaving a 30 skinrequiring the greatest skill in order to obtain uniformity throughoutall portions of the shaved skin and to avoid the presence.

of ridges or scores or other lines of demarcation between ad acent areassuccessively operated upon. Moreover, the shaving of perforated portionsof the skin and of the of the invention to secure uniformity. and

a high grade of excellence in the product of the machine, even inoperations upon rather medium gr'ades of skins and hides such as thosehaving perforated portions. 1

'With the aboveand other objects and in accordance with important.features I 7 of the invention means is provided inde eg pendent of thefeed. rolls and of the shaving cylinder for spreading and smoothingportions of the skin or hide before it is operated uponby the shavingcylinder so that eventually all portions of the skin or hide are 7 theinview.

carried in extended condition to the cylin der without any folds orwrinkles which would interfere with perfect cutting by the cylinderblades in the shaving operations.

Preferably, and as shown, the spreadingmeans comprises'a spreading rollor cylinder in co-operation with-a. surface upon which the hide or skinis extended through the operation of the rotating spreading roll. In theillustrative construction the spreader surface is provided by a bedplate which is yieldingl'y mounted so as to accommodate itselfautomatically to variations in the thickness of the hide or skin beingoperated upon. Conveniently, the bed plate is mount,- ed upon the samesupport wh1ch' carries the supporting feed rollover which the skin isfolded approximately midway of its length in position for the beginningof operations, and by this support the bed plate ismovedinto-co-operative relation with respect to the spreader roll.Because of the effectiveness of the illustrated machine and particularlyof the spreading means, it isv possible .to operate upon the full widthof a skin at one time. Hence approximately one half of the skin may beshaved by the illustrated machine at one operation, and the remaindersimilarly treated at a succeeding operation. There is thus accomplishedin two operations an amount of work which) has heretofore required muchlaborious effort and many operations with a shifting of the skin betweeneach operation.

Other features of\the invention and novel combinations of parts will bedescribed the detailed specification and pointed out in the appendedclaims. In the drawin Fig. 1 is an end view of amachine 's o w ng oneembodiment of the invention; I V Fig. 2 is a front v ew of one endportionof themachine shown in Fig.1; N Fig. 3 is a sectional view m adirection sfrom front to rear of the machine showing arts inworkingposition; and 1 F1g.' 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 with the suporting, roll in work receiving position.

n the drawings the machine is shown as.

provided with relatively heavy end frames 6 which carry bearings for the'various rolls and cylinders which constitute the work operating partsof the machine. The work mayconsist of hides, kips, skins or pieces 65unshav'edpart suspended over the feed roll of leather of variousorigins, and nolimita-- tion is to be inferred because of the use of theword skins in referring to the work.

Supported in the upper portionsof the end frames is a feed roll 8,sometimes called a pinch. roll, carried by blocks 10 slidably mounted inguideways 12, a spring 14 being provided for pressing each block 10yieldmgly in a downward direction to hold the feed roll 8 yieldinglyagainst a co-operating feed roll 16. Preferably, the latter feed roll ismounted in bearings at the upper ends of arms 18. pivoted at 20 in theend frames 6. When the machine is at rest the arms '18 support the feedroll 16 in the position shown in Fig.4, that is, spaced from the feedroll 8 so thatthe work may be readily a from the shaft 36 is yieldinglyapplied to the arms 18.. When the bell crank 22 is moved to the positionshown inFig. 1 the arm 18 is rocked to carry the feed roll 16 intoposition beneath the upper feed roll -8 whereby the skin inposition onthe lower feed roll is firmly enga ed so that it will be fed uponrotation of t e feed'rolls. .Preferably the supporting feed roll 16 hasa rubber ortion 38 to support and feed the work.

ounted in the end frame 6 to the rear and below the upper feed roll 8 isa cylinder 40 having cuttingblades 42 arranged helically on its surfaceaccording to the usual construction in which the blades extendinopposite directions from the longitudinal center of the cylinder.These blades have the sharpened edges usual in cylinders utilized forfieshing or shaving operations on skins or hides. When the feed roll 16is moved into operative'position, indicated in Figs. 1 and 3, the skinis pressed against the surface of the cylinder 40 by the rubbercoveredfeed roll 16 and subjected to a shaving operation at the same time thatit is being fed by the rolls 8 and 16. In the illustrative constructionthe feed rolls 8 and 16 turn in the directions indicated by the arrowsin Fig. 3 to feed the work out of the machine during the operation ofthe shaving cylinder 40. Hence, only that part of the skin below thepoint of contact with the cylinder 40 at the time that the machine isstarted in operation isoperated upon while the feed roll 16 ismaintained in operative position. The machine must then be stopped withthe feedmoll 16 the open position of Fig. 4, and the work reintroducedwith the 16 below the level of a lane passing throu h the axes of thefeed r0 1 16 and the'cylin er proper operation of the cutting means.

extended so as toinsure In the skin in extended condition. Not only '40.Upon starting the machine again the p the illustrative construction themeans for spreading the skin being operated upon comprlses a cylinder 50having blades 52 arranged helically on the surface of the c linder. theedges of the blades being dul or somewhat rounded, retainin however,sufficient edge to engage t e skin for a spreading and more or lessstretching operation in order that the skin may be properly extended forthe operation of the cutting cylinder. It will be understood that thehelically arranged blades 52 extend in opposite directions from" thelengthwise center of the cylinder so as to spread the skin laterally.

Means is provided for driving the cylinder;

50, the said means com trated construction, a

engage a pulley 56 on the end of the shaft of the cylinder 50, theopposite end of-the rising in the. illuselt 54 arranged to" belt passingaround a pulley 58 on a counter shaft 60 driven through atrain of gearsincluding gear 62 on the shaft 36. For cooperation with the spreadingcylinder '50 there is provided in the illustrated machine, a bed platewhich extends longitudinally of the cylinder 50 and is pivotallysupported '-by arms or'e'xtensions 72 (Fig. 2) having pivotal connectionwith the shaft or trunnion portions of the feed roll 16. As shown, thebed plate 70 is concaved transversely (Fig.

3) so that a curved surface of considerable extent is provided foreffective, co-operation with the periphery of the spreading cylinder 50in spreading operations upon the skin. Preferably, the bed plate 7 O isbacked by spring means which will enable the bed plate to adjust itselfautomatically to varia- I tions in the thickness of the skins or hidesbeing operated upon. In the construction shown the supporting arms 18are each provided with a projection 7 6 having a stud 01' boss to seatone end of a spring '78, the

other end of which engages with a corre sponding projection or boss onthe rear surface or the bed .plate 70. In a projecting rib or flangeonthe arm 72- isa perfora-. tion which is interiorly screw-threaded to.

receive aset screw or bolt 82 which carries a lock nut 84 so that'thescrew or bolt may.

be properly adjusted to secure proper tension of the spring 78, the endof the bolt or screw being normally in contact with a stop or abutment86 fixedly secured to or integral with the corresponding arm It. will beunderstood that by adjusting the screws or bolts 82 thesprings .7 8 maybe placed under any desired amount of tension so that there will be aninitial tension in. the springs, one at each end of the bed plate,tending to holdlthe bed plate 70 with suflicient resistance against thespreading roll 50' to insure proper -co-operation between these parts ins reading operations on theskin .or hide. rom the foregoing descrip tion'it will be clear that the'hed plate 70' moves with the feed roll 16when the supporting. arms 18 move to open position, which occurs whenthe machine comes to rest after each operation in accordance with theusual and Well known mode of operation of this type of machine.

In operating with the machine,,a skin or hide is thrown over the lowerfeed roll 16' and over the bed plate 70 while the arms 18 are in theopen position shown in Fig. 4,

the skin being folded over the roll 16 along a linecorresponding,approximately to a central fold in the skinor hide.understood that allof the rolls and cylinders may be of a length toaccommodate and operate upon the largest skins or hides when fullyspread out. gUpon starting the machine the arms 18 are at once operatedto move the feed roll 16 and thebed, plate 70 intothe closed positionshown in Figs. 1 and 3 where they are held while all of the rolls arerotated to feed and to operate on the skin or hide. In the constructionshown the feed rolls 8 and 16 rotate in the 'direction of the arrows tofeed the skin or hide .out of the machine and as the skin moves alongvunder the action of the feed rollers the cylinders 40 and perform theiroperations of spreadin and shaving the skin orhide, the ,spreading oeration taking place in such relation to t 1e operation of the cylinder40 that the skin is properly spread for the operation of the cuttingcyl-" inder 40. When the skin has been completely fed from the machinethe latteris stopped by releasing the usual treadle, whereupon thesupporting arms 18 move to the 0 en position of Fig; 4 so that the skin-may we reintroduced into the machine with the unshaved part thrownoverthe feed roll 18 and the-bed plate in position for operation by thecutting cylinder 40, care l;e-

ing taken that the unshaved portion of the skin or hide is positionedbelow a line joining the centers of the feed roll 16 and the cuttingcylinder 40., This second operation of the machine completes the shavingor fleshing of the .skin or hide. observed that-thesharing of the skinor It will be It i will be hide by thismachine calls for little in theway- .0 expert knowledge, such as is absolutely necessary in shavingoperations where the regular commercial machines are employed.Furthermore, the labor of the operator is reduced simply to theintroduction and removal of the work, whereas in theconnnercialoperations, as practised today,-

the operatormust hold the skins and exercise very considerable tensionon the skins while they are being shaved. By means of applicantsinvention there is secured uniformity in the thickness of the shavedskins or hides and also a greatly increased output.

It is to be understood that the spread- --mg meansherein disclosed isnot limitedin Its applicatlon to shaving machines but may be applied tomachines for fleshing,

unhairing, scrubbing, brushing, cleaning,

setting, pulling-out, and other analogous uses. 1

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desireto'secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a machine ofthe character described, a work operating member, feed rolls for feedingthe work, means comprising a rotary member for spreading and smoothingthe work for the operation of said operating member, and a-membermovable to press the tion for the operation of said member, said meanscomprising a spreading. roll in cooperation with a member over which thevwork is spread by the spreading roll.

4. In a machine of the character described a cutting cylinder, upper andlower feed rolls for feeding the skin or hide past the cutting cylinder,means for supporting the lower feed roll so that it may be moved fromwork receiving to work presenting position, a bed plate carried by .thesupportmg means and having a curved supporting surface upon whiclrtheskin or hide may be spread, and a spreader roll arranged forco-operation with the bed plate to spread the skin oivhide for theoperation thereon of the cutting roll or cylindelx.

5. In a machine of the character described. a cutting cylinder, feedrolls for feeding the work past the cutting cylinder, a spreading roll,and a member arranged for co-operation with the spreading roll to spreadthe work in extended condition priorto .the

operation ,thereon of the'cutting cylinder.

' support and movable into co-operative relation with the spreader rollto effect spreading of'the work.

7. In a machine of the character described, means for operating on work,feed rolls for feeding the work past said means, a spreader rolllocatedto operate on the work to spread the same in extended'conditiom-amember having a surface for co-operation with the.

spreader'roll, and a support for said member movable to carry it from'work' receiving position to work presenting posit on W1threspect to thespreader roll.

8; In a machine of the character described,- means for operating onwork, feed rolls for moving the work past said means and for Isupporting the work during the operation of said means,-a spreaderroll,and a member having a curved surface for co-operation with the spreaderroll, said member and spreader roll being relatively-movable in adirection toward and from each other so that the work maybeintroducedwhile they are in opened position and subsequently oper-' atedupon to spread the same when they are brought into co-operativerelation.

In a machine of the character described, a cutting cylinder, feed rollsfor' feeding the work and for supporting it for theactiorr of thecutting cylinder, and means comprising a spreading roll stationary-inspace and rotatable with the feed rolls and in a direction opposite tothat of the feed offlthe work for spreading the work prior to theoperation ofthe cutting cylinder. r I 10.) In a machine of thecharacter' described, a cutting cylinder, feed rolls for feeding thework and for supporting it for i the action of the cutting cylinder, andspreading means comprising a rotatable member and a bed plate having asurface of substantial extent over whichthe work is moved by the feedrolls while being "spread in extended relation before it passes to the Ifeed rolls and into the field of operation of the cutting cylinder.-

11. In' a machlneof the character. de-

- scribed, a cutting cylinder, feed rolls for feeding the work and forsupporting it for the action of the cutting cylinder, and

spreading means for spreading the skirnin extended relation prior to'theoperation of the cutting cylinder, said means comprising a bladedcylinder in co-ope'ration with a bed curvedsupporting surface upon whichthe skin or hide may be moved by the feed rolls to be spread in extendedcondition, and a spreader roll arranged for co-operation with .the bedplate to spread the skin or hide for the operation thereon of thecutting roll or cylinder.

13.'In a machine of the character 'described, a cutting cylinder, feedrolls for feeding the work past the cutting cylinder, a spreading roll,a bed plate arranged for coo-operation with the spreading roll, andmeans for yieldingly backing the bed plate. so that the spreading meansaccommodates itself automatically to variations in. the thickness of thework. a 4

14. In a machine for shaving hides, skins, leather or other similarpieces of work, a cutting cylinder, up er and lower feed rolls forfeeding the wor past the cutting cylinder, a spreading cylinder located.at one side of the cuttin' cylinder, a support for the lower feed rolmovable to open position so that the work may be placed overthe lower afeed roll, and a bed late carried by the said support and mova 1etherewith into co- .operativerelatioh with the spreader roll. 1

15. In a'machinefor shaving hides, skins, leatherg or-other similarpieces of work, a cuttingcylinder, feed rolls for feeding the work pastthe cutting cylinder, a spreader roll located to .operate on the work tospread the same in extended-condition, a bed plate havingl a curvedsurface for co-operation witht bed plate movable to carry it from work'receivin position to work presenting position wit respect to thespreader roll. i 16. Ina machine for shaving hides, skins, leather orothersimilar pieces of\ wot'k,:.a cutting cylinder, feed rolls formoving the work past the cutting cylinder and for supe spreader roll,and a support for the.

porting the work during the operation of the 7 cutting cylinder, aspreader roll,,and a bed plate having a curved surface for co-operationwith the spreader roll, said bed pl-ate and spreader roll beingrelatively movable in a direction toward and from .each other Intestimony whereof I have signed my ILLIAM name to this specification.

v Y W E. BI iANEY.

